FIG. 1 depicts a rendering of an exemplary subnetwork attached to public switched telephone network (PSTN) 100. The subnetwork comprises: PBX 120, cellular network 150, and five telecommunications terminals: wireline telephones 110-1 and 110-2, cordless telephone 130, wireless telephone 160, and two-way pager 170. As shown in FIG. 1, PBX 120's antenna 125 communicates wirelessly with wireless telephone 130's antenna 135, and cellular network 150's antenna 155 communicates wirelessly with wireless telephone 160's antenna 165 and two-way pager 170's antenna 175. Telecommunications terminals, such as those depicted in FIG. 1, alert a user when the terminal receives an incoming message.
In the prior art, a telecommunications terminal typically alerts the user to the arrival of an incoming message via some sensory mechanism; most commonly, this mechanism is an acoustic “telephone ring”. In some telecommunications terminals, it is possible for the user to specify one of a plurality of such sensory mechanisms; for example, some wireless telephones give the user a choice of an acoustic “telephone ring” or a physical vibration of the telecommunications terminal. However, the sensory mechanism selected by the user applies to all incoming messages.
In the prior art, some telecommunications terminals alert the user to the arrival of an incoming message via more than one sensory mechanism; for example, a telecommunications terminal with “caller ID” service can provide a visual text message indicating the identity of the caller in addition to an acoustic telephone ring. Again, the sensory mechanisms are the same for all incoming messages.
The fact that the user can specify which particular alerting mechanism(s) are employed is advantageous, but the techniques for doing so in the prior art are somewhat limited. Therefore, the need exists for a more flexible technique that a user can use to specify the alerting mechanism on his or her telecommunications terminal.